The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 5 - Various
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The youthful Henry, the first of the Saxon line, was proclaimed king of
Germany at Fritzlar, in 919, by the majority of votes, and, according to
ancient custom, raised upon the shield. The Archbishop of Mayence
offered to anoint him according to the usual ceremony, but Henry
refused, alleging that he was content to owe his election to the grace
of God and to the piety of the German princes, and that he left the
ceremony of anointment to those who wished to be still more pious.
Before Henry could pursue his more elevated projects, the assent of the
southern Germans, who had not acknowledged the choice of their northern
compatriots, had to be gained. Burkhard of Swabia, who had asserted his
independence, and who was at that time carrying on a bitter feud with
Rudolph, King of Burgundy, whom he had defeated, in 919, in a bloody
engagement near Winterthur, was the first against whom he directed the
united forces of the empire, in whose name he, at the same time, offered
him peace and pardon. Burkhard, seeing himself constrained to yield,
took the oath of fealty to the new-elected King at Worms, but continued
to act with almost his former unlimited authority in Swabia, and even
undertook an expedition into Italy in favor of Rudolph, with whom he had
become reconciled. The Italians, enraged at the wantonness with which he
mocked them, assassinated him. Henry bestowed the dukedom of Swabia on
Hermann, one of his relations, to whom he gave Burkhard's widow in
marriage. He also bestowed a portion of the south of Alemannia on King
Rudolph in order to win him over, and in return received from him the
holy lance with which the side of the Saviour had been pierced as he
hung on the cross. Finding it no longer possible to dissolve the
dukedoms and great fiefs, Henry, in order to strengthen the unity of the
empire, introduced the novel policy of bestowing the dukedoms, as they
fell vacant, on his relations and personal adherents, and of allying the
rest of the dukes with himself by intermarriage, thus uniting the
different powerful houses in the State into one family.
Bavaria still remained in an unsettled state. Arnulf the Bad, leagued
with the Hungarians, against whom Henry had great designs, had still
much in his power, and Henry, resolved at any price to dissolve this
dangerous alliance, not only concluded peace with this traitor on that
condition, but also married his son Henry to Judith, Arnulf's daughter,
in 921. Arnulf deprived the rich churches of great part of their
treasures, and was consequently abhorred by the clergy, the chroniclers
of those times, who, chiefly on that account, depicted his character in
such unfavorable colors.
In France, Charles the Simple was still the tool and jest of the
vassals. His most dangerous enemy was Robert, Count of Paris, brother to
Odo, the late King. Both solicited aid from Henry, but in a battle that
shortly ensued near Soissons, Count Robert losing his life and Charles
being defeated, Rudolph of Burgundy, one of Boso's nephews, set himself
up as king of France, and imprisoned Charles the Simple, who craved
assistance from the German monarch, to whom he promised to perform
homage as his liege lord. Henry, meanwhile, contented himself with
expelling Rudolph from Lotharingia, and, after taking possession of
Metz, bestowed that dukedom upon Gisilbrecht, the son of Regingar, and
reincorporated it with the empire. These successes now roused the
apprehensions of the Hungarians, who again poured their invading hordes
across the frontier. In 926 they plundered St. Gall, but were routed
near Seckingen by the peasantry, headed by the country people of
Hirminger, who had been roused by alarm fires; and again in Alsace, by
Count Liutfried: another horde was cut to pieces near Bleiburg, in
Carinthia, by Eberhard and the Count of Meran. The Hungarian King,
probably Zoldan, was, by chance, taken prisoner during an incursion by
the Germans, a circumstance turned by Henry to a very judicious use. He
restored the captured prince to liberty, and also agreed to pay him a
yearly tribute, on condition of his entering into a solemn truce for
nine years. The experience of earlier times had taught Henry that a
completely new organization was necessary in the management of military
affairs in Germany before this dangerous enemy could be rendered
innoxious, and, as an undertaking of this nature required time, he
prudently resolved to incur a seeming disgrace by means of which he in
fact secured the honor of the State. During this interval of nine years
he aimed at bringing the other enemies of the empire, more particularly
the Slavi, into subjection, and making preparations for an expedition
against Hungary by which her power should receive a fatal blow.
In the mean time Gisilbrecht, the youthful Duke of Lotharingia, again
rebelled, but was besieged and taken prisoner in Zuelpich by Henry, who,
struck by his noble appearance, restored to him his dukedom, and
bestowed upon him his daughter, Gerberga, in marriage. Rudolph of France
also sued for peace, being hard pressed by his powerful rival, Hugo the
Great or Wise, the son of Robert. Charles the Simple was, on Henry's
demand, restored to liberty, but quickly fell anew into the power of his
faithless vassals.
Peace was now established throughout the empire, and afforded Henry an
opportunity for turning his attention to the introduction of measures,
in the interior economy of the State, calculated to obviate for the
future the dangers that had hitherto threatened it from without. The
best expedient against the irruptions of the Hungarians appeared to him
to be the circumvallation of the most important districts, the erection
of forts and of fortified cities. The most important point, however, was
to place the garrisons immediately under him as citizens of the State,
commanded by his immediate officers, instead of their being indirectly
governed by the feudal aristocracy and by the clergy. As these garrisons
were intended not only for the protection of the walls, but also for
open warfare, he had them trained to fight in rank and file, and formed
them into a body of infantry, whose solid masses were calculated to
withstand the furious onset of the Hungarian horse. These garrisons were
solely composed of the ancient freemen, and the whole measure was, in
fact, merely a reform of the ancient _arrier-ban_, which no longer
sufficed for the protection of the State, and whose deficiency had long
been supplied by the addition of vassals under the command of their
temporal or spiritual lieges, and by the mercenaries or bodyguards of
the emperors. The ancient class of freemen, who originally composed the
arrier-ban, had been gradually converted into feudal vassals; but they
were at that time still so numerous as to enable Henry to give them a
completely new military organization, which at once secured to them
their freedom, hitherto endangered by the preponderating power of the
feudal aristocracy, and rendered them a powerful support to the throne.
By collecting them into the cities, he afforded them a secure retreat
against the attempts of the grafs, dukes, abbots, and bishops, and
created for himself a body of trusty friends, of whom it would naturally
be expected that they would ever side with the Emperor against the
nobility.
This new regulation appears to have been founded on the ancient mode of
division. At first, out of every nine freemen--which recalls the
_decania_--one only was placed within the new fortress, and the
remaining eight were bound--perhaps on account of their ancient
association into corporations or guilds--to nourish and support him; but
the remaining freemen, in the neighborhood of the new cities, appear to
have been also gradually collected within their walls, and to have
committed the cultivation of their lands in the vicinity to their
bondmen. However that may be, the ancient class of freemen completely
disappeared as the cities increased in importance, and it was only among
the wild mountains, where no cities sprang up, that the _centen_ or
cantons and whole districts or _gauen_ of free peasantry were to be met
with.
Henry's original intention in the introduction of this new system was,
it is evident, solely to provide a military force answering to the
exigencies of the State; still there is no reason to suppose him blind
to the great political advantage to be derived from the formation of an
independent class of citizens; and that he had in reality premeditated a
civil as well as a military reformation may be concluded from the fact
of his having established fairs, markets, and public assemblies, which,
of themselves, would be closely connected with civil industry, within
the walls of the cities; and, even if these trading warriors were at
first merely feudatories of the Emperor, they must naturally in the end
have formed a class of free citizens, the more so as, attracted within
the cities by the advantages offered to them, their number rapidly and
annually increased.
The same military reasons which induced the emperor Henry to enroll the
ancient freemen into a regular corps of infantry, and to form them into
a civil corporation, caused him also to metamorphose the feudal
aristocracy into a regular troop of cavalry and a knightly institution.
The wild disorder with which the mounted vassals of the empire, the
dukes, grafs, bishops, and abbots, each distinguished by his own banner,
rushed to the attack, or vied with each other in the fury of the
assault, was now changed by Henry, who was well versed in every knightly
art, to the disciplined manoeuvres of the line, and to that of fighting
in close ranks, so well calculated to withstand the furious onset of
their Hungarian foe. The discipline necessary for carrying these new
military tactics into practice among a nobility habituated to license
could alone be enforced by motives of honor, and Henry accordingly
formed a chivalric institution, which gave rise to new manners and to an
enthusiasm that imparted a new character to the age. The tournament--
from the ancient verb _turnen_, to wrestle or fight, a public contest in
every species of warfare, carried on by the knights in the presence of
noble dames and maidens, whose favor they sought to gain by their
prowess, and which chiefly consisted of tilting and jousting either
singly or in troops, the day concluding with a banquet and a dance--was
then instituted. In these tournaments the ancient heroism of the Germans
revived; they were in reality founded upon the ancient pagan legends of
the heroes who carried on an eternal contest in their Walhalla, in order
to win the smiles of the Walkyren, now represented by earth's well-born
dames.
The ancient spirit of brotherhood in arms, which had been almost
quenched by that of self-interest, by the desire of acquiring feudal
possessions, by the slavish subjection of the vassals under their
lieges, and by the intrigues of the bishops, who intermeddled with all
feudal matters, also reappeared. A great universal society of Christian
knights, bound to the observance of peculiar laws, whose highest aim was
to fight only for God--before long also for the ladies--and who swore
never to make use of dishonorable means for success, but solely to live
and to die for honor, was formed; an innovation which, although merely
military in its origin, speedily became of political importance, for, by
means of this knightly honor, the little vassal of a minor lord was no
longer viewed as a mere underling, but as a confederate in the great
universal chivalric fraternity. There were also many freemen who
sometimes gained their livelihood by offering their services to
different courts, or by robbing on the highways, and who were too proud
to serve on foot; Henry offered them free pardon, and formed them into a
body of light cavalry. In the cities the free citizens, who were
originally intended only to serve as foot soldiery, appear ere long to
have formed themselves into mounted troops, and to have created a fresh
body of infantry out of their artificers and apprentices. It is certain
that every freeman could pretend to knighthood.
Although the chivalric regulations ascribed to the emperor Henry, and to
his most distinguished vassals, may not be genuine, they offer
nevertheless infallible proofs of the most ancient spirit of knighthood.
Henry ordained that no one should be created a knight who either by word
or by deed injured the holy Church; the Pfalzgraf Conrad added, "no one
who either by word or by deed injured the holy German empire"; Hermann
of Swabia, "no one who injured a woman or a maiden"; Berthold, the
brother of Arnulf of Bavaria, "no one who had ever deceived another or
had broken his word"; Conrad of Franconia, "no one who had ever run away
from the field of battle." These appear to have been, in fact, the first
chivalric laws, for they spring from the spirit of the times, while all
the regulations concerning nobility of birth, the number of ancestors,
the exclusion of all those who were engaged in trade, etc., are, it is
evident from their very nature, of a much later origin.
CONQUEST OF EGYPT BY THE FATIMITES
A.D. 969
STANLEY LANE-POOLE
(It was the fate of the religion which Mahomet founded, as it has been
of other great systems, to undergo many sectarian divisions, and to be
used as the instrument of conquest and political power. When Islam had
somewhat departed from the character which it first manifested in moral
sternness and fiery zeal, and had established itself in various parts of
the world on a basis of commerce or of science, rather than that of its
original inspiration, various off shoots of the faith began to assume
prominence. Among the sects which sprang up was one that claimed to
represent the true succession of Mahomet. This sect was itself the
result of a schism among the adherents of one of the two principal
divisions of the Moslems--the Shiahs. They maintained that Ali, a
relation and the adopted son of Mahomet and husband of his daughter
Fatima, was the first legitimate imam or successor of the prophet. They
regarded the other and greater division--the Sunnites, who recognized
the first three caliphs, Abu-Bekr, Omar, and Othman--as usurpers. Ali
was the fourth caliph, and the Sunnites in turn looked upon his
followers, the Shiahs, as heretics.
The schism among the Shiahs grew out of the claim of the schismatics
that the legitimate imam or successor of the Prophet must be in the line
of descent from Ali. The sixth imam, Jaffer, upon the death of his
eldest son, Ismail, appointed another son, Moussa or Moses, his heir;
but a large body of the Shiahs denied the right of Jaffer to make a new
nomination, declaring the imamate to be strictly hereditary. They formed
a new party of Ismailians, and in 908 a chief of this sect, Mahomet,
surnamed el-Mahdi, or the Leader--a title of the Shiahs for their
imams--revolted in Africa. He called himself a descendant of Ismail and
claimed to be the legitimate imam. He aimed at the temporal power of a
caliph, and soon established a rival caliphate in Africa, where he had
obtained a considerable sovereignty. The dynasty thus begun assumed the
name of Fatimites in honor of Fatima. The fourth caliph of this line,
El-Moizz, conquered Egypt about 969, founded the modern Cairo, and made
it his capital. The claims of the Egyptian caliphate were heralded
throughout all Islam, and its rule was rapidly extended into Syria and
Arabia. It played an important part in the history of the Crusades, but
in 1171 was abolished by the famous Saladin, and Egypt was restored to
the obedience which it had formerly owned to Bagdad. The Bagdad caliphs,
called Abbassides--claiming descent from Abbas, the uncle of
Mahomet--remained rulers of Egypt until 1517, or until within twenty
years of the death of the last Abbasside.)
Three hundred and thirty years had passed since the Saracens first
invaded the valley of the Nile. The people, with traditional docility,
had liberally adopted the religion of their rulers, and the Moslems now
formed the great majority of the population. Arabs and natives had
blended into much the same race that we now call Egyptians; but so far
the mixture had not produced any conspicuous men. The few commanding
figures among the governors, Ibn-Tulun, the Ikshid, Kafur, were
foreigners, and even these were but a step above the stereotyped
official. They essayed no great extension of their dominions; they did
not try to extinguish their dangerous neighbors the schismatic
Fatimites; and though they possessed and used fleets, they ventured upon
no excursions against Europe.
The great revolution which had swept over North Africa, and now spread
to Egypt, arose out of the old controversy over the legitimacy of the
caliphate. The prophet Mahomet died without definitely naming a
successor, and thereby bequeathed an interminable quarrel to his
followers. The principle of election, thus introduced, raised the first
three caliphs, Abu-Bekr, Omar, Othman, to the _cathedra_ at Medina; but
a strong minority held that the "divine right" rested with Ali, the
"Lion of God," first convert to Islam, husband of the prophet's daughter
Fatima, and father of Mahomet's only male descendants. When Ali in turn
became the fourth caliph, he was the mark for jealousy, intrigue, and at
length assassination; his sons, the grandsons of the Prophet, were
excluded from the succession; his family were cruelly persecuted by
their successful rivals, the Ommiad usurpers; and the tragedy of Kerbela
and the murder of Hoseyn set the seal of martyrdom on the holy family
and stirred a passionate enthusiasm which still rouses intense
excitement in the annual representations of the Persian passion play.
The rent thus opened in Islam was never closed. The ostracism of Ali
"laid the foundation of the grand interminable schism which has divided
the Mahometan Church, and equally destroyed the practice of charity
among the members of their common creed and endangered the speculative
truths of doctrine."
The descendants of Ali, though almost universally devoid of the
qualities of great leaders, possessed the persistence and devotion of
martyrs, and their sufferings heightened the fanatical enthusiasm of
their supporters. All attempts to recover the temporal power having
proved vain, the Alides fell back upon the spiritual authority of the
successive candidates of the holy family, whom they proclaimed to be the
imams or spiritual leaders of the faithful. This doctrine of the imamate
gradually acquired a more mystical meaning, supported by an allegorical
interpretation of the _Koran_; and a mysterious influence was ascribed
to the imam, who, though hidden from mortal eye, on account of the
persecution of his enemies, would soon come forward publicly in the
character of the ever-expected _mahdi_, sweep away the corruptions of
the heretical caliphate, and revive the majesty of the pure lineage of
the prophet. All Mahometans believe in a coming mahdi, a messiah, who
shall restore right and prepare for the second advent of Mahomet and the
tribunal of the last day; but the Shiahs turned the expectation to
special account. They taught that the true Imam, though invisible to
mortal sight, is ever living; they predicted the mahdi's speedy
appearance, and kept their adherents on the alert to take up arms in his
service. With a view to his coming they organized a pervasive
conspiracy, instituted a secret society with carefully graduated stages
of initiation, used the doctrines of all religions and sects as weapons
in the propaganda, and sent missionaries throughout the provinces of
Islam to increase the numbers of the initiates and pave the way for the
great revolution. We see their partial success in the ravages of the
Karmathians, who were the true parents of the Fatimites. The leaders and
chief missionaries had really nothing in common with Mahometanism. Among
themselves they were frankly atheists. Their objects were political, and
they used religion in any form, and adapted it in all modes, to secure
proselytes, to whom they imparted only so much of their doctrine as they
were able to bear. These men were furnished with "an armory of
proselytism" as perfect, perhaps, as any known to history: they had
appeals to enthusiasm, and arguments for the reason, and "fuel for the
fiercest passions of the people and times in which they moved." Their
real aim was not religious or constructive, but pure nihilism. They used
the claim of the family of Ali, not because they believed in any divine
right or any caliphate, but because some flag had to be flourished in
order to rouse the people.
One of these missionaries, disguised as a merchant, journeyed back to
Barbary in 893, with some Berber pilgrims who had performed the sacred
ceremonies at Mecca. He was welcomed by the great tribe of the Kitama,
and rapidly acquired an extraordinary influence over the Berbers--a race
prone to superstition, and easily impressed by the mysterious rites of
initiation and the emotional doctrines of the propagandist, the wrongs
of the prophetic house, and the approaching triumph of the Mahdi.
Barbary had never been much attached to the caliphate, and for a century
it had been practically independent under the Aglabite dynasty, the
barbarous excesses of whose later sovereigns had alienated their
subjects. Alides, moreover, had established themselves, in the dynasty
of the Idrisides, in Morocco since the end of the eighth century. The
land was in every respect ripe for revolution, and the success of
Abu-Abdallah esh-Shii, the new missionary, was extraordinarily rapid. In
a few years he had a following of two hundred thousand armed men, and
after a series of battles he drove Ziyadat-Allah, the last Aglabite
prince, out of the country in 908. The missionary then proclaimed the
imam Obeid-Allah as the true caliph and spiritual head of Islam. Whether
this Obeid-Allah was really a descendant of Ali or not, he had been
carefully prepared for the role, and reached Barbary in disguise, with
the greatest mystery and some difficulty, pursued by the suspicions of
the Bagdad caliph, who, in great alarm, sent repeated orders for his
arrest. Indeed, the victorious missionary had to rescue his spiritual
chief from a sordid prison at Sigilmasa. Then humbly prostrating himself
before him, he hailed him as the expected mahdi, and in January, 910, he
was duly prayed for in the mosque of Kayrawan as "the Imam 'Obeid-Allah
el-Mahdi, Commander of the Faithful.'"
The missionary's Berber proselytes were too numerous to encourage
resistance, and the few who indulged the luxury of conscientious
scruples were killed or imprisoned. El-Mahdi, indeed, appeared so secure
in power that he excited the jealousy of his discoverer.
Abu-Abdallah, the missionary, now found himself nobody, where a month
before he had been supreme. The Fatimite restoration was to him only a
means to an end; he had used Obeid-Allah's title as an engine of
revolution, intending to proceed to the furthest lengths of his
philosophy, to a complete social and political anarchy, the destruction
of Islam, community of lands and women, and all the delight of
unshackled license. Instead of this, his creature had absorbed his
power, and all such designs were made void. He began to hatch treason
and to hint doubts as to the genuineness of the Mahdi, who, as he truly
represented, according to prophecy, ought to work miracles and show
other proofs of his divine mission. People began to ask for a "sign." In
reply, the Mahdi had the missionary murdered.
The first Fatimite caliph, though without experience, was so vigorous a
ruler that he could dispense with the dangerous support of his
discoverer. He held the throne for a quarter of a century and
established his authority, more or less continuously, over the Arab and
Berber tribes and settled cities from the frontier of Egypt to the
province of Fez (Fas) in Morocco, received the allegiance of the
Mahometan governor of Sicily, and twice despatched expeditions into
Egypt, which he would probably have permanently conquered if he had not
been hampered by perpetual insurrections in Barbary. Distant governors,
and often whole tribes of Berbers, were constantly in revolt, and the
disastrous famine of 928-929, coupled with the Asiatic plague which his
troops had brought back with them from Egypt, led to general
disturbances and insurrections which fully occupied the later years of
his reign. The western provinces, from Tahart and Nakur to Fez and
beyond, frequently threw off all show of allegiance. His authority was
founded more on fear than on religious enthusiasm, though zeal for the
Alide cause had its share in his original success. The new "Eastern
doctrines," as they were called, were enforced at the sword's point, and
frightful examples were made of those who ventured to tread in the old
paths. Nor were the freethinkers of the large towns, who shared the
missionary's esoteric principles, encouraged; for outwardly, at least,
the Mahdi was strictly a Moslem. When people at Kayrawan began to put in
practice the missionary's advanced theories, to scoff at all the rules
of Islam, to indulge in free love, pig's flesh, and wine, they were
sternly brought to order. The mysterious powers expected of a mahdi were
sedulously rumored among the credulous Berbers, though no miracles were
actually exhibited; and the obedience of the conquered provinces was
secured by horrible outrages and atrocities, of which the terrified
people dared not provoke a repetition at the hands of the Mahdi's savage
generals.